Maine Maritime Students Rescue Stranded Man at Sea
The TS State of Maine helped a man whose sailboat was damaged.
— -- A group of maritime students from Maine got a lesson in nautical rescue when they helped a sailor who was stranded at sea.
The 500-foot TS State of Maine carrying the Maine Maritime Academy students answered a distress call on Wednesday from the Coast Guard that reported a sailboat was taking on water off Newfoundland, ABC affiliate WMTW reports.
Both the State of Maine and the stranded man, Michael Hurley, returned to Portland on Saturday.
According Hurley, his 30-foot-sailboat was en route to Ireland when it was damaged during a storm. The State of Maine was about 30 miles away when it was alerted by the Coast Guard.
Once the ship reached the boat, it provided a net for Hurley to climb aboard.
“It's a relief to get it over with,” said Les Eadie, the captain of the State of Maine. “A lot of things could go wrong in a rescue like that. It felt good to get it over with, definitely.”